SINGAPORE: A fresh graduate’s frustration over today’s highly competitive job market has struck a chord online, after they shared how difficult it has been to secure even a first-round interview despite strong academic credentials.
Their post quickly drew responses, including blunt feedback from a hiring manager who suggested that salary expectations could be working against them.
In a post on the r/singaporejobs subreddit, the young individual shared that they graduated with first-class honours from a local university and also had a journal publication during their undergraduate studies. Despite this, they said their job search has been discouraging.
“I applied to about 80+ jobs but was faced with ghostings and rejection emails saying I’m not suitable or there are MORE SUITABLE CANDIDATES than me BEFORE even landing a first-round interview.”
The graduate then wrote that they never expected the competition to be “this fierce.”
“Makes me wonder who are these other competitors? Are we competing with double-degree holders with double first-class honours? 5 years of internship and work experience for undergrads? What about the masses of students in the median?”
“I think you need to lower your expectations a little.”
In the comments, one hiring manager from the fintech industry pointed to salary expectations as a potential stumbling block.
“What’s your expected salary?” they asked. “~50% of grads are filling in expected at S$5.5k. Not sure if it’s the grad survey or seniors telling them that is expected, but unfortunately, it isn’t. There’s a ton of 1 YOE PMs that are applying between S$4.5 and S$5k, so yeah.”
They also urged the fresh grad to keep their resume/CV to 1 page, saying, “I don’t want to read your intro or your 4 other internships that are not relevant to your role, or your army experience parked under ‘leadership’ experience or how you were the treasury of a CCA. Structure it as a 1-page pitch; if it doesn’t fit, just cut.”
Another explained, “Those grad surveys are misleading. When I graduated, the surveys were saying that the average starting salary in my relevant field would be S$3K+, yet I started with S$2.5K, and someone I knew started with S$2.2K.”
“I suspect that they mostly surveyed graduates who got into huge MNCs that were paying above the market rate. SMEs employ over 70% of the local workforce, and they’re certainly not paying these published rates.”
A third added, “I think you need to lower your expectations a little. My friend with 6 years of experience in a research role is drawing S$4k.”
Several commenters also noted that fresh graduates are no longer competing solely with their peers.
One said, “Your other competitors are the earlier batches of fresh grads (bachelor’s and master’s) that are still job searching and juniors with a few years of experience. My humanities junior who graduated mid-year last year only found a role in academic research very recently. No publications under their name with 3 internships, but they got into a very relevant space.”
Another pointed out that global competition can also come into play, especially in industries open to international hiring.
“The real competition comes from foreigners willing to take way lower pay than you. And since they graduate earlier than us, they often have several years of actual work experience (beats whatever internship experience you have). So it’s rarely about your qualifications and rather more about how you justify your paycheck.”
In other news, an HDB resident shared on social media that they have been dealing with a frustrating and potentially dangerous situation involving an upstairs neighbour who has been throwing trash down from their unit for over a year.
In their post, the resident explained that the items being tossed include water, leftover food, and even bags of rubbish.
Read more: HDB resident frustrated as neighbour keeps tossing food and rubbish from upstairs despite repeated complaints
